Emerald
by FaerieQueen3
Summary: The Queen was kind once, when there was love and hope and a future. Those times were gone, and kindness with them. The Queen was not kind, and this is the story why. Strong T guys, be warned.


_Hi, howdy, hey, hiiiii. This is something I was inspired to write after reading "Ten Thousand Cuts" by 'Nagia' on the Labrynth archive. Seriously, go read it, it's sososo good. _

_xoxo_

_FairieQueen3_

* * *

"My Lady, _please!"_

She looks down her nose at him, unmoved by his plea, unconcerned for this pitiful creature sentenced to exile in the desert lands. A death sentence in reality, the young fae would not last a week against the serpents and blistering heat. A slow death, for him and his.

He was an apprentice to the royal treasurer, and it seemed he had seen fit to skim off of the Land's wealth and keep what he liked to himself. After having been discovered by the royal guard, he was brought immediately before the monarchs to face judgement.

King Marduc turned to his wife after hearing the evidence. He watched her for a moment before asking, "What think you, my queen?"

She barely spared the accused a glance before passing his sentence. Exiled to the Desert of Vipers, he and his family.

"If you stole for them," she said, in response to his entreaty that they be spared, "Then they are just as at fault as you are." The Queen was many things, but she was not patient, she was not _merciful_.

"Majesty, I beg your pardon, I beg your kindness." Sarah's emerald eyes hardened; she was not merciful, and she was certainly not _kind_.

She watched as he was dragged out of the throne room, screaming and weeping, her husband a cold and constant presence at her side. "Well done," he praised quietly, his voice as unreadable as his face. She could never tell what he was thinking (which was just as well, because she had never wanted to, had refused to try with a vehement passion when she was not as she is now: Too numb and too tired to care).

Her eyes flickered to him for a split second before returning to the door, through which the caterwauling could still be heard. "Thank you, my king."

He was silent for a moment, but then said, "It seems wife, that always they plea for charity. Why would that be?" He was curious, accusing, cold, as he was with all things. Or, all things pertaining to her.

She kept her face stoically composed, "Perhaps they know something about me that I don't." He chuckled at that before lifting her hand briefly to his lips, requesting - _demanding - _her presence at dinner, and walking briskly away, his black cloak billowing behind him.

Only when the door had shut behind him did she allow herself a shuddering breath as she sank into her throne. She tried to run her fingers through raven black locks only for her fingers to hard, cold object placed on top of her head with strands of hair woven into it. Her crown; a thing of beauty, made by the finest craftsmen in the underground. She tore it off her head, ignoring the pain as it tore at her scalp and threw it to the ground. It clanged as it hit the marble floor and the sound echoed in the vast throne room.

It was empty, so _empty_: There were no chickens clucking and leaving a trail of feathers and eggs in their wake, no goblins singing off-key and banging pots and pans together. There were no flustered courtiers making their way over the mess as she held back her mirth at the sight. There was no beautiful king - heartbreakingly _beautiful,_ and brilliant _her's _all _her's _- to chastise his subjects antics, to sweep her into his arms and dance with her, kiss her, make her feel_ alive. _There was none of that here, it couldn't exist here, in this place that absolutely repelled happiness and laughter and all things she once held dear.

She dropped her face in her hands and let herself shed bitter tears for what she had lost, for what this world had lost. She wept, and as she wept, she remembered.

* * *

_It began at the Samhain counsel. It mattered little whether history would say it began the deaths of the High King and Queen or with the conquest of the Summer Clachans. Sarah knew when the poison had begun to brew. It was her first counsel that she would be attending with Jareth, their first formal outing as husband and wife._

_She had met him again by accident when he was wandering the above ground with a human glamour - "Jackson King, at your service." - and had been instantly attracted to this man who was so much like her childhood fantasy. So they had talked over a cup of coffee. Then they did that every Saturday, and then thrice a week. By the time he formally invited her to a dinner date, she was completely smitten. She no longer wanted the surreal fantasy of her teenage years, she was in it for him. It was no surprise when they married two years later, in her childhood church, with her in her grandmother's wedding dress looking more beautiful than he had ever thought anyone could be. _

_Despite her anger on their wedding night when he revealed that he was the king she had dreamt of for so long - "Why didn't you tell me before we got married!" - they had quickly reconciled and solidified their bond further by marrying in the Goblin Kingdom as well. Sarah could remember looking in his eyes and feeling her eyes and heart overflow with pure, unadulterated happiness._

_She was so young then, so naive, thinking that as long as she stayed near to him, as long as they loved each other, nothing could go wrong. They were invincible in her eyes. Then she met Marduc, and for the first time since her reunion with Jareth some three years before, she felt vulnerable. _

_"Sarah," Jareth said his voice tight as his protective grip on her waist, "May I present his Royal Majesty, King Marduc and his wife, Queen Mab. You are resplendent as always Your Grace." The last part addressed to Mab who lips curved upwards in a small smile. But oh, she was beautiful; skin pale as snow and hair black as a jay's wing. Her eyes were the same shade of unearthly black, and her lips blood-red - roses should never be compared to those lips. She was like the first snowfall; beautiful in its novelty, yet fearsome in its promise of the lethal months to come. _

_"You are too kind Jareth," she said, tone laced with sweetness as dubious as her smile. "Your bride however, is a gem." Sarah blushed, but was uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the higher monarchs. Especially that of the King. _

_"High praise, coming from one so lovely," Sarah replied, forcing herself to smile and offer a diplomatic response, even in the face of her growing unease. Mab laughed and called her precious. Sarah cheeks turned pink with ire and she stiffened. Only Jareth could call her that. _

_As he pulled her away, he whispered in her, "Are you alright, Precious thing?" _

_Sarah nodded, and kissed him to ease both of their concerns, but could not shake the feeling of being watched throughout the night. When she was drinking, eating, dancing with her husband, ever were Marduc's eyes on her; and she watched him as well. Watched as he took some diplomats and nobility aside as she followed soundlessly behind. She listened as he promised them power and wealth, listened as he spoke of conquest and death and horror. She heard what was never meant for her ears before scurrying away, praying she hadn't been seen. _

_The moment she saw Jareth, she threw herself into his arms wanted it to go away; wanting the images of cities burning, of blood and gore and death. The thought of those monarchs Marduc had spoken to being willing to murder their families for land and gold was too much and she nearly wept. Jareth held her tightly to him, not asking what, who, had shaken her so; he didn't need to, he had a good enough idea and it made his stomach churn with fury. "Let us leave," he murmured and Sarah could only nod through her distress._

_As the rode away in their coach, she could see Marduc at the entrance of the castle, watching. Sarah turned away and leaned in to her husband, wishing that_ creature _would never look at her again. Poor dear, she__ couldn't have known just how often he would look at her in the years to come._

* * *

_The war was heralded by the assassination of King Oberon and Queen Titania. The whole of the Faewilde were left destitute by their deaths, and called for the blood of him responsible; Oberon's own brother, Marduc. Mab's body had also been found with them, and it was only later that Sarah learned that she had stood between her husband and Titania, her twin, in a rare show of familial loyalty. Her throat had been slit for her troubles._

_Jareth was Oberon and Titania's third son, and he mourned the deaths of his parents as none have mourned before. Yet, he mourned still more when, one month later, his elder siblings, Fareth and Doreth, both met their end by their traitor uncle's blade. He was on the brink of sanity in his grief, but Sarah, with kindness, and patience, and her unending _love _brought him back, and he told her so. She only responded with a kiss and said, "I will always bring you back, I promise."_

_The lands previously under the control of the Summer Monarchs were devastated by Marduc's lust for blood, for conquest. His cohorts - fae who were of royal blood, but stood too far down the line of succession to be troubled with - subtly and not-so-subtly murdered those who stood in their way to the thrones of their kingdoms, per Marduc's bidding, and, once they sat upon their thrones, would welcome him with open arms. They would thank him for giving them the vision to be kings, and he would smile. Then he would decapitate them, pull down their flag, and replace it with their head on a stake. _

_And so it went, throughout all the known world; kingless lands taken instantly and plundered if any resistance was met, and those who fancied themselves kings and having the blood of their family on their hands... Well, they were all dealt with in similar fashion. _

_The Labrynth was the final frontier, the last free kingdom left standing. Refugees had come from across the Faewilde to find solace from the destruction, to find hope. But there was little hope to be found there: The Labrynth was a desert land, and, with the allies they so depended upon for produce and fresh water otherwise conquered, the land and her people were in anguish. _

_Many had already died from hunger and thirst, those who thrived on magic more than food, grew ill from the evil that shrouded their world. There was no hope for them; they were not a kingdom of fighters, and of them, few were left who were able to fight, whereas Marduc had trained legions of unmentionable creatures to do his bidding. There was a time when the Labrynth herself would have been more than enough to thwart any enemy, but she had done so for months now, and she was utterly _spent. _There was only so much she could do against the overwhelming forces all around her. Furthermore, she was connected to her monarchs, and they were tired, so _tired.

_There was no hope for them, there had not been for some time. Yet, when Marduc's forces marched upon their gates, every inhabitant of the Goblin Kingdom - mother, daughter, father, son, old, young, ill, hale - _all of them _stood at the gates with their king and queen, most of them weilding homemade weapons to make one last stand against the tyrant king. To die fighting him than live and be ruled by him. When the gates were thrown open, they put their weapons forward, let out a battle cry and charged to meet their foe. _

_It was a _slaughter. _Goblins, dwarves, mage, and fae fell by sword and arrow, tooth and claw, stone and dagger. Sarah pulled her sword out of_ _her opponent - a banshee - and looked up to see the chaos around her and gasped as tears streamed down her cheeks. There were deaths on both sides, but theirs...Oh, they were being decimated. She felt hollow, but the hollowness filled with horror as she saw two black-clad figures fighting on a hilltop. _

_"Jareth!" She hadn't realized she had shouted until he turned and looked at her, his eyes panicked, thinking she was in danger. He was only distracted for a moment, but the moment cost him: Marduc lunged forward and his sword grazed Jareth's belly. It was a scratch, but scratches bleed and the sight of her beloved's blood made Sarah snap. _

_She sprinted up the hill towards the two kings, sword drawn and barreled into Marduc. Not expecting the attack, he was easily felled and Sarah managed to scramble up before he did and placed her foot on his chest and the tip of her blade at his throat. Then everything was still._

_'I could kill him,' she thought, as she stared into onyx eyes. She could kill him, and be heralded a hero. She could kill him, and it would solve everything, she could _kill _him. But then she turned and saw her husband's eyes and realized that no, she couldn't. Because this was her husband's uncle - as terrible as that was - and a king, and he deserved to face the world; to face the people he had wronged and be judged by _them_. What right had she to rob them of that privilege?_

_She pulled her sword away and sheathed it, never once averting her gaze from his own. "This once," she began, "I will show you mercy; a kindness you will have wished you had shown my people." _

_It shouldn't have happened. Marduc's forces had already seen their leader fallen and had begun to disband, being chased by what was left of the Labyrinth's forces. Four young fae males had already come with rope to bind his wrists, with his ankles tied loosely together so that he could not run, it _shouldn't have happened. _Only, it did. When Sarah turned and found herself enveloped by her husbands arms that made her feel safe, so _safe,_ neither of them were watching Marduc, who easily overpowered the youths and grabbing his sword, lunged forward. _

_Jareth heard the commotion before Sarah did, saw the sword coming towards her, and acted on pure instinct. He whipped himself around and placed his body between his uncle's sword and his bride. _

_"JARETH!" This time she knew she had screamed, and in her soul she continued to scream long after her lungs could no longer do so. Time slowed to her as he fell and threw herself to the ground beside her husband as Marduc loomed over them, the four fae who had tried to arrest the king - 'Nay,' she thought, 'The_ beast.' -_ dead behind him. _

_"Precious-"_

_"Shh, don't speak love, save your strength."_

_"Precious...It is done."_

_"NO! No, I-I will bring you back, I promise...I _promised."

_Jareth smiled gently at her, even as blood dripped down his chin and brought his hand to her tear-streaked face. She grasped in a vice-like grip, pressing it to her cheek; as though she could keep him with her by sheer force of will. "Dear thing," he said, using what little life he had left to steady his voice, to soothe her. "I cannot hold you to that. You are released."_

_She openly wept now, closing her eyes as the pressed her lips firmly into his palm - oh, it grew so cold against her cheek. "But I must bring you back, you cannot leave me like this, you cannot leave me alone here. Jareth I beg you...B__e kind to me: Stay with me."_ _But her pleas fell on deaf ears as her king, her husband, her _Jareth _closed his eyes and breathed his last. _

_She sat stark-still for a moment in horrified disbelief. Her tears fell freely from her eyes onto her husband's hand, which she still held to her, and onto his face. That beautiful face that she loved so well. Although around her, seeing the new turn of events, the battle had begun anew and the air was filled with the sounds of blood-curdling screams and clashing metal, she heard only the absence of Jareth's beating heart._

_Then Marduc spoke, and the words he said broke her as even Jareth's death had not. "I thank you for your mercy, Goblin Queen," she winced at the title. She was not worthy of it, she could not be the Goblin Queen without the Goblin King beside her: Guiding her, supporting her, _loving _her. He saw her reaction and chuckled inside, "Perhaps next time, thought, you should not be so kind." _

_The battle was over by the end of the day, and the war with it. Marduc, and by extension, the nightmarish abominations of the Unseelie Court ruled the entire Faewilde. But every king needs a queen, "And who better," he announced to his filthy assembly, "Than the prized jewel of the Labyrinth." He had brought her forward then, in her dress of black and silver, with her face deathly pale and her heart shattered to pieces. _

_She wanted to run, she wanted to run as far and fast as she could away from this living nightmare. But then there were her friends - Didymus, Ludo, Hoggle - in the front row, bloody and in chains and she knew that she had no choice. There had been so much death already, she couldn't lose them too because of her own childish need to hide in her parent's room where the monsters couldn't find her. Where she was safe, just as Jareth had always kept her safe. _

_'And then you betrayed him,' a poisonous voice in her mind whispered. 'You could have killed this animal, ended all this, and then you would still have him.' It was true, and it hurt _so much_. _

_'Coward,' the voice said as she knelt before the altar. 'Traitor,' it snarled as she said her vows. 'Adulteress,' it told her on her wedding night - for although Jareth was dead, he was her other half, her soul-mate, and she felt disgusting for betraying him like this. 'Fool,' it cried when she saw the bodies of her three dearest friends hanging from flag poles the day after her wedding. _

_'Liar,' the voice chortled when she called Marduc "husband". Her _husband _was back at the Labyrinth, his body left to rot in the sun and be eaten by the dragons and other creatures who lived in the desert, always hungry for flesh. Her husband was a great man, though he was not always good. Marduc was a pathetic substitute for her true husband._

_Years went by, decades, and she felt every moment of them. When she had married Jareth and been blessed with the longevity of the faerie folk, she had thought that ten thousand years would be hardly enough time to spend with her beloved. Now, God, now she wished for every day to be her last. _

_The kindness she had been so well-loved for as the Goblin Queen left her. "__Kindness"_ _had cost her her king, her kingdom, her _life. _The warm roses and slight tan that had been thought so exotically beautiful, faded with time. Frolicking in the sunlight no longer brought her joy, and she had nothing to make her blush from pleasure, or happiness. Her skin became the same eery palour as the late queen. For the first time, Sarah wondered if Mab had always been that way, or if she too had the life drained out of her only to be filled with the harsh coldness of the Unseelie._

_The years went on, and on, and on, and Sarah's heart turned to stone._

* * *

Now, as she stared at the crown on the floor, letting the memories rush through her, she remembered warm arms, and golden hair, and everything that was so precious to her once._ Her_ crown, that of the Labyrinthine Queen, was solid gold, with a single teardrop diamond in the center. Not the weaving silver circlet that lay on the floor. The object was as abhorrent to her as the fae who had placed on her head a century ago - had it really been that long? - and she felt the numbness that had encompassed her for so long give way to deep-seeded hatred.

She rose slowly from her throne, full of purpose. The roses, so long dormant, returned to her cheeks, as she flushed from boiling rage. She looked at her crown - _"It's a tiara, Precious," _Jareth used to say - before stalking out of the room.

Upon reaching her chambers, she glided to her vanity and opened her music box. It held the few possessions she had brought from the Labyrinth: Her engagement ring, a pearl necklace Jareth had given her for her birthday, a ruby pendant that had been his anniversary gift when they were courting - _"Where did you get this? Oh, nevermind-I love you; I love you, I love you, I love you! - _and then the one she had come for: A jewelled dagger, with a golden hilt that was inlaid with emeralds.

_"What ever for?" _she had asked when he presented it to her

_"To protect yourself Dear thing, when I cannot_."

_"Well, there's no use for it then - you will always protect me. But it is beautiful, thank you..."_

She hardened with resolve. There was use for it now. And per the enchantment of protection Jareth had placed upon it, it would serve its mistress well.

She stalked to Marduc's study and was let to pass without any resistance from the guards. (After all, what could the human queen do against the emperor?) "Husband she called softly, and ignored the bitter taste it left in her mouth. That was the _last _time she would call him that; the last time she would taint Jareth's memory by doing so.

He looked up at the sound of her voice, but only briefly before turning back to his work. "What can I do for you, wife?" She would have grimaced, at another time, but it was too late for that, and her face was set in stone.

"No, but I've a message for you," he stopped his writing for a moment, intrigued. She took a breath and continued, "You would do well to hear me." At that, he stood and walked towards her, his eyes set on hers, but telling nothing.

When he was right in front of her he stopped. Sarah felt her heart hammering in her chest, once again tingeing white cheeks pink. Marduc noticed, and his eyes narrowed. "What is this message you have for me, Precious."

Behind her back, Sarah toyed with her dagger and took one staggering breathe.

_'...No more.'_

"Simply this, Emperor," In one swift movement, she pulled her weapon from behind her back, and plunged it into his heart. "Never call me _Precious."_

He let out a muffled scream before he fell to the ground, his eyes wide in shock that his human wife had truly finished what had been started so long ago. The guards burst in, having heard their king's cry, only to see him dead on the floor, their queen standing over him with bloodied hands.

But, rather than arresting her or killing her on spot, as Sarah had been prepared for, they both dropped down on one knee. Then again, these boys - and they were just _boys, children_ from her perspective - had been taken from their own lands by force. They felt no love for the fallen king.

"What would you have us do, my queen?" she let the dagger fall from her hands as she told them to do what should have been done long ago.

"Send out messengers across the land, to the places where the kingdoms of the Faewilde once stood. Tell them to gather their own back to their land. Tell them they are free."

The shock and relief was plain on both of their youthful faces. One practically ran from the room, as though for fear she would change her mind. The other, younger one though, stayed a moment and bowed to her. "Long live the Queen Sarah," he said, before walking from the room to carry out her commands.

The Queen was many things, but she was _not _the Queen of the Unseelie. She was wife to her dearly departed husband, and it was with him that she would stay. The power struggle that would occur among the Unseelie for their wretched kingdom was not her concern, and the other kingdoms were already ripe for rebellion; they would win without her, and they would be free again. And so, with that knowledge, she walked out of the study, out of the palace and away from the city, without once looking back.

It took many days of travel by horseback and foot before she reached the edge of the Goblin Desert, but she manged, and when she did, she was too exhausted and starved to speak. But still she walked, until her skin was blistered and her soles burned, until, finally she reached the hill. The hill where it had all began, the hill where it had all ended. The place where her Dearest One had died. And now, now _at last _she could join him.

She collapsed on the sand, in the place where she knew the murder of her husband had happened, although now, not even his bones remained. She kissed the sand, looked to the sky, and closed her eyes.

The next thing she felt was warm arms wrapped around her and golden, thin hair tickling her face. Her wedding gown soft against her skin as they waltzed, she and her beloved, forever. Sarah and Jareth, as husband and wife. Just as they had been, and just as the would always be, until time ran dry and the sky fell down.

* * *

_This is so freaking long, but hopefully worth it :-). _

_xoxo_

_FairieQueen3_


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